The New Challengers
by Tollgatekeeper
Summary: All the Smashers are summoned to a new tournament, but they don't realize that Master Hand, in his boredom and quest for higher ratings, has sought out new competitors. Will these new challengers prove too much for the original cast?
1. The Announcement

**My first Smash Brothers story. I so do not own any of these characters. Hope you enjoy...**

* * *

Chapter 1: The Announcement

The courtyard of Princess Zelda's castle was shady and pleasant, decorated with fountains, shrubs, stone seats and tall, leafy trees.

Today, Zelda herself was taking a stroll through the grassy grounds, and several guards of the castle looked on from their stations with interest as the tall, blonde girl walked past their view, talking politely to the elf-like man next to her.

"…so glad you could come," she was saying to her friend, who was of course Link, the Hero of Time.

"Well, I wouldn't want to miss whatever big announcement Master Hand has planned for all of us," Link said, smiling slightly. "And since he decided to use your castle to gather all of the competitors, I didn't even have far to travel."

Zelda nodded, enjoying the afternoon's fine weather and the lazy mood of the day. She too had been surprised when Master Hand had suddenly asked her to lend the use of her castle to all the competitors for a day, but she had been happy to help out. Plus, it was a nice change to her usual schedule.

A movement near one of the large fountains caught her eye suddenly, and she turned her head to see Young Link balancing precariously up on the rounded ledge of the fountain, trying to walk carefully around the water.

Link noticed his younger self as well, and groaned loudly.

"Careful, Link! You'll fall!" He called out, only seconds before he and the princess heard the high-pitched cry, followed by a loud splash.

Zelda and Link hurried over to the fountain, where a guard with a beard was pulling the coughing and spluttering boy out of the water by the back of his shirt.

"Are you the guardian of this boy?" The soldier asked gruffly, holding out Young Link to his older existence.

"Well…technically I _am _that boy, but I have to take care of him too. Um, don't ask how that's possible-the bending of time and all that is difficult to explain, you know?" Link said sheepishly to the soldier, who looked like he wished he hadn't asked.

The soldier turned to Zelda, and bowed slightly.

"Princess, my men and I are having a tough time keeping your…_guests_…under control. Squad A has just returned from the difficult job of getting Donkey Kong down from swinging on the expensive chandeliers, while Squad C had to put out a fire caused by Bowser-apparently he was in the kitchen, going through the food of the castle, when he digested something that disagreed with him, and the next thing we know, the whole place is aflame!" The soldier complained, his bushy beard quivering with indignation.

Princess Zelda looked amused to Link, but she managed to keep a straight face.  
"I'm sorry, Captain Steiner. Master Hand has said that his announcement shouldn't take long, and then I suppose everyone will leave shortly after. I thank you for all your hard work today." She said formally.

Steiner bowed, looking relieved, and then hurried off to resume his tasks.

Zelda and Link helped Young Link over to a stone bench, and then Zelda asked one of her assistants (they were always hovering near-by) to fetch a towel for the dripping boy.

"What do you think Master Hand's announcement will be?" Link asked Zelda.

He already had a fairly good inkling of what it was going to be, but wanted to hear the princess' opinion.

"Surely it will be that he has decided to put a stop to the tournament for good," Zelda said, stifling a yawn.

Link nodded. "That's what I thought, too."

Young Link sat up straight on the bench, his eyes wide. "What? There won't be any more tournaments?" He cried, aghast.

Zelda shook her head. "Probably not. No-one wants to compete any more."  
"I do!" Young Link protested.

"We all know you do, but most of the other fighters are sick of the games." Link told the boy. "Most of us have better things to do, and no-one cares about winning trophies now."

"That sucks!" Young Link fumed, crossing his arms. "I hope that's not going to be the announcement."

"We'll see," Zelda said gently, but she gave Link a look that told him to get ready for Young Link's disappointment later on.

As an assistant ran back to the group, holding out a towel for Zelda, Link snuck a look at the princess.

Her beauty still stunned him, and he had fallen in love with her from the first day they had met, all those years ago, in the same castle he now stood in. She just seemed so perfect to him, but at the same time she could laugh and joke with him naturally, and sometimes she confessed to him her secret fears.

Over the years, he and Zelda had grown very close, and were good friends.

And yet…Link wanted to be _more _then friends, but Zelda had never really shown any interest in him. Then again, she didn't really show much interest in _any _males, much to Link's relief; but the fact that he couldn't voice his strong feelings to her frustrated him greatly.

He suppressed a sigh. _Oh well. _He would hear the announcement, and then take Young Link back to their home, and he supposed he would then move on to his next adventure.

Zelda had instructed her assistant, a young, nervous-looking female, to dry Young Link's head with the towel, but the boy protested that he could do it himself, and was struggling to free himself from under the towel. Zelda laughed as the assistant tried heroically to dry Young Link, and Link had to chuckle to himself.

He suddenly became aware that he was being watched, and he glanced over to see the shadowy face of a short person spying on him from behind a tree.

The figure gave a yelp, and took off across the grounds before Link could get a good look at it.

It was obvious to him however that it had been Mario, just from glancing at the person's silhouette and mustache. Link took another look at the tree the person had run off from, and gave a short chuckle-he had even left a couple of coins behind in his wake.

_What kind of game is Mario playing? _He wondered to himself.

* * *

On the other side of the castle, in a pleasantly-decorated guest room, Mario sat at a white table with his brother Luigi, Donkey Kong, and Peach. 

The four of them were playing a card game to pass the time-they had started off playing "Snap", but quickly stopped after Donkey Kong had gotten over-excited, and had squashed Luigi's poor hand under his giant palm.

"Do you have a seven?" Luigi asked Mario hopefully, and Mario shook his head.

Peach heaved a sigh, looking at her cards idly.  
"I feel very bored…"She commented, and Mario nodded.

"Hopefully we'll be called together soon. I wouldn't mind going back home and eating some bananas," Donkey Kong said wistfully.

"What, you tired of swinging on all the castle's chandeliers?" Luigi joked, still feeling quite sore about his hurt hand.

Mario and Peach laughed, while Donkey Kong only glared at the skinny plumber.

"We're just going to be told that there won't be any more tournaments," Mario said. "Even I'm getting a bit sick of them-Link usually wins, anyway."

The rest of the table nodded in agreement.

"Still, it's a bit of a shame, isn't it? I think I'll miss the opportunity of us all coming together like this," Peach said.

Mario thought he would miss it as well, but he also knew when to move on. Realizing that it was his turn, he asked Donkey Kong if he had any nines, and the ape snorted and handed him a card resentfully.

Mario reached out a hand to take the card, but before he could grab it, it slipped out of D.K's hand and fell to the table.

Before Mario could scoop it up, the card suddenly sprang up and began walking across the table top slowly.

Everyone seated at the table stared in disbelief at the moving card, and then Peach let out a scream.

"What _is _it?" She shrieked. "Mario, do something!"

Without thinking, Mario knocked the card off of the table. It fluttered away to the ground, but something else landed next to it; a small, mechanical spider equipped with a lens, which must have somehow been hiding under the card in D.K's hand.

The plumber watched open-mouthed as the machine-spider hurried across the floor, began walking up a wall, reached the open window, and leaped out into the air.

"O-kaaay," Luigi said slowly. "Either the castle's security had a major budget increase, or…or I don't know."

"Well, someone was spying on us!" Peach declared, looking shocked.

"Who would use that type of technology?" Mario asked.

"Samus might," Luigi suggested. "Though I haven't seen her use anything like that particular thing before."

"I don't think Samus would do something like that to us, her friends," Peach pointed out. "Bowser and Ganondorf might, but they wouldn't have access to that type of technology."

"All this thinking is hurting my head," Donkey Kong complained, but was ignored.

The door to the room suddenly opened, and Link strolled in, making a bee-line for Mario.

"_There _you are," he complained, looking flustered. "It took me ages to track you down! Now, what were you doing spying on the princess, Young Link and I in the courtyard?"

Mario stared up at the green-clad man. "Wha? I don't know what you're talking about."

"I saw you. Behind a tree." Link said, patiently.

"Was this sometime ago?" Peach asked Link. "Because Mario's been playing cards with us for maybe an hour now."

Link gaped at her, and then shrugged. "Really. Oh well, it must have been Doctor Mario, I suppose."

"I…don't think so. Doctor Mario's been busy going through the castle's Library ever since he arrived." Peach said.

Link scratched his head, looking uneasy. "Well, I saw _someone _that looked like Mario. Normally, I wouldn't care, but…I don't know, I just feel like something's going on here."

"Something _is _going on," Mario told Link. "We just discovered this weird…spider-thing spying on us."

Link looked blank. "Spider-thing?"

"A mechanical spider," Peach said. "It escaped out the window."

Link looked thoughtful. "I wonder if any of this has anything to do with Master Hand. I suppose we'll find out soon enough."

* * *

In the main hall of the castle, Marth and Roy sat at the foot of a staircase, catching their breath.  
They had been sparring next to the castle's massive double-doors until just a moment ago, when a bearded, stressed-looking soldier had appeared out of no-where and had told them to stop making such a racket. 

"Great, now I'm even more bored," Roy complained, while watching Yoshi gallop past them with an excited Pikachu on its back, chattering to itself.

"It was mostly your fault we got told off," Marth pointed out. "You're the one that knocked over all those suits of armor."

Roy rolled his eyes; the sunlight that entered the room from windows situated high up the walls catching his red hair and turned it gold.

"They were stacked up like dominoes!" He complained. "If I hadn't have bumped into them, someone else would have."

Marth chuckled, and then fell silent.

"…Hey Marth. You don't want to stop fighting, do you?" Roy asked, quietly.

"What, you mean in the tournament? No, of course not. I'm ready to take down Link finally, come the next tournament." Marth said.

Rod nodded, looking satisfied. "That's good to hear. Because, ah…I've been hearing rumors that Master Hand wants to pull the plug."

Marth frowned. "Yeah, me too. Let's just hope that's not the case."

"I think there would be a lot less pressure on the guy, er, _thing,_ whatever, if he had not started televising the fights." Roy complained.

"Hell yeah. Remember all the meetings we had to go to?" Marth chuckled, and put on a voice mimicking Master Hand's: "Marth, what are you doing? The audience is falling asleep out there! Ratings are down fifty percent!"

Roy laughed loudly, but stopped as a shadow fell on him, as someone stood behind him.

"E-excuse me," said a timid, female voice. "Is this where all the fighters are supposed to gather?"

* * *

As night fell, all the fighters sat in a large room of the castle, where plenty of chairs had been laid out in rows, in front of a stage. The room was noisy with the voices of all twenty-five competitors, as they chatted amongst themselves while waiting for Master Hand to show up. 

In the front row, Link sat with Zelda and Young Link, and the swordsman was surprised to feel how nervous he felt. He still wasn't sure what he would do with himself after he no longer had to compete in the tournament.

Next to him, he felt Zelda's hand squeeze his, in a show of support. His heart beat a little faster.

At the back of the room, standing up because he found most chairs to be uncomfortable, Bowser groaned and clutched at his stomach. He still didn't know what had been in that cake he ate, but one thing he did know was that he would never insult Peach's cooking again.

"Oh, hurry it up!" He roared to the room. "Some of us have more throwing up to do!"

"Yeah, bring on Master Hand!" Marth cried, and the whole room started to chant for Master Hand to come out.

Sitting in the center of the seats, Mario impatiently waited. He just wanted the announcement to be made, and he also hoped to find out just what was going on around the castle.

Finally, the curtains on top of the stage parted, and Master Hand emerged.  
"About time!" Fox yelled.

To everyone's surprise however, Crazy Hand also emerged onto the stage.

Everyone knew about Master Hand's "brother", of course, but he rarely attended meetings or formal occasions, being slightly…well, crazy.

"Okay, okay, pipe down!" Master Hand commanded.

The room immediately hushed. No-one could say for sure just how Master Hand spoke, but at the same time they also didn't give it much thought.

"Since you all seem to be so impatient this evening, I should probably get straight to the announcement." Master Hand grumbled.

Someone yelled "Whoo!" and was quickly shushed.

Master Hand appeared to take a deep breath, before continuing: "As you know, ratings for Super Smash Bros. Melee are at an all-time low."

Roy quietly groaned, and whispered to his friend, "I knew we would get the 'ratings speech'!"

"Not that I can blame people for switching off," Master Hand said. "The whole thing's getting a bit old, as I'm sure some of you in this room can even feel."

Everyone in the room seemed to stop breathing, as they all waiting in anticipation.

_This is it, _Mario thought. _It's been cancelled._

"So, a while back I decided to do something drastic, something I'm sure a lot of you might not like. Still, it can't be helped. As of tomorrow, I plan to cut down the numbers of fighters in this room that competes in the tournament drastically." Master Hand revealed.

There was a heavy silence, and then the room exploded as everyone tried to talk at once.

"What?" Mario shouted. "That's it?"

"I don't want to fight in this tournament anymore, and now you're saying you're cutting people out anyway?" Someone else yelled.

"We all thought you were going to say that you're canceling the tournament!" Mew-Two cried.

"That would have been better!" Link shouted. "It's just going to be even _duller_, fighting with less people!"

Master Hand stood motionless, listening to the outcry, and then finally he yelled for silence.

"Don't you want to know _why _I'm cutting down the number of fighters?" He asked.  
When no-one responded, he went on regardless. "I have decided that, from now on, we need new fighters! New challengers. And so, to start with, I have invited three of the new fighters here today. Will you come out, please?" This last part was addressed to back-stage.

Stunned silence met the three new fighters, as they walked out on to the stage.

In the audience, Marth chuckled and dug his elbow into Roy's side. The two had enjoyed waiting for the announcement that there will be new fighters, for they had found out just before the meeting that that was the case, from one of the new competitors herself.

Link gaped up at the stage, his eyes on the first, and shortest, fighter. Dressed in yellow and purple, he recognized Wario instantly, as he had became quite famous recently. His mind went back to the courtyard-it must have been _Wario _who had been spying on him!  
Wario was grinning into the audience, looking smug. Link turned in his seat and saw that Mario was staring at Wario with a horrified expression.  
Link couldn't blame Mario-after all, Wario represented yet another enemy for Mario.

He turned back to the stage, now ready to look at the other two new fighters. One was a woman dressed in black that he did not recognize, while the other was-

His stomach leaped. _Surely there must be some mistake!_ He thought.

The girl in the middle smiled down at him nervously and gave him a small wave. The girl was dressed in white and had long, red hair. It was Malon, the farm girl!

He turned to look at Zelda, and saw that she too was staring in shock at the girl.

Behind Link, Mario felt like sobbing. _Not Wario! _He thought. It was bad enough having Bowser constantly around.  
Sitting next to him, Luigi tugged at his arm. "Mario!" He hissed. "Stop looking at Wario, and check out the girl to the right! She must have been the one that used the mechanical bug!"

Mario tore his eyes from Wario, and glanced at the woman. She was wearing some strange, black and blue outfit, had short, red hair, and was gazing coolly into the audience.  
"I don't recognize her," Mario whispered.

Master Hand looked smug. Or, as smug as a glove with no expression can look.

"That's right!" He gloated. "Let's see what _this _does for the ratings! I present to you the first of the new fighters: Wario, Malon, and Joanna Dark!"

* * *

**For anyone who does not know, Joanna Dark is from the game Perfect Dark, on the Nintendo 64.  
Also, naming that guard "Steiner" might have been kind of lazy of me, but I wanted to pay tribute to the character from Final Fantasy IX. **

Okay, going to explain the story and stuff now. For those of you who know my writing style, you'd know that I tend to write a lot. This was an attemptto not write as much as I would normally...it still came in at around 3,000 words though. Doh!  
When I edited this, I was all "must...describe...more...stuff!" but I resisted the urge to. So this story might flow faster than my other ones.

Oh yeah, I gotta say that this story was inspired by BabyGurl's and Rynada's Smash Brothers stories, which are fun to read.

Anyway, I knew I wanted to write a Smash Bros. story, and I eventually settled on the idea of adding some new characters to the line-up. _But_, I wanted it to be slightly realistic. You know, not have characters from, say, Street Fighter, an anime, or some other random game (though Final Fantasy characters _would _be nice, heh). So all the characters I'm going to use will be from Nintendo games-even Joanna Dark, as the first game was on the 64. Sneaky. ;)  
I think a new Smash Brothers has been announced for the Revolution, so I also wanted to include some characters that pretty much _have _to be in the next game. Wario is one of them: I mean, how can he _not _be in the next Smash Bros? He would actually be a fairly interesting character, too.  
Sadly, Malon probably _won't_ be in the next Smash Bros game. :p I just wanted to include her because she's a good character.

This chapter just sets up the story, and further chapters will expand on everything. This fic is going to be mostly light-hearted, but will also have some romance, some action, and lots of humor.

Well, if you read this, let me know what you think!  
**  
**


	2. Those who want to leave, do so

**Finally updated! I've been lazy with this, so I made myself write chapter two. Nothing much to say about it before you read it, but remember: I don't own any of these characters. **  


* * *

Chapter 2: Those who want to leave, do so.

The room remained silent after Master Hand had introduced the new fighters, until Marth stood up from his seat and began to clap eagerly, which encouraged everyone else to offer up a round of applause.

Fox looked around the room, startled at the energetic clapping and whistling his fellow smashers were giving. Before the announcement, Fox had felt that most of the people in the room were sick of fighting…but now? Something had changed, almost as if an electric current had been applied to the room.

_Had they all only needed new competition to renew their interest in the tournament_? Fox thought, amazed.

He clapped louder, feeling more and more exited with each passing second. His eyes went to the red-haired woman standing coolly on the stage. _Now, she looks like competition! _He thought. _And we need new female fighters, too!_

Finally, the applause subsided, and Master Hand spoke once more.

"I can see that most of you are as excited about this new opportunity as I am!" He said jovially. "And this season, not only will there be new fighters, but I have decided to use even more locations for the battles! This will be a great chance for you all to travel and see new destinations, and the audience watching at home are just going to lap up all the cameras and technology we have invested in."

"Screw the audience!" Bowser snapped loudly-he was still feeling pretty sick in the stomach, which was making him even more cranky then usual.

Master Hand coughed, and then went on.

"Anyway, I think that just about wraps up almost everything. Any questions?" He asked.

Mew-Two held up a paw.  
"Yes. What happens now? As in, where are we going to stay for the length of the tournament?" He questioned.

"Ah, yes." Master Hand said. "I admit that I haven't quite worked that out yet. But I'm thinking of having more then one place where you will all stay. For tonight, I was hoping that we could all stay here at the castle, as guests. That is, if it's all right with Princess Zelda?"

Everyone turned in their seats to look at Zelda, who laughed nervously.

"Oh! Of…of course it's okay! I'm sure the staff won't mind if it's just for one night." She said.

"Excellent. I promise you that everyone will be on their best behavior-" He began, but was interrupted by Crazy Hand.

"Crush! Destroy! Rearrange Princess Zelda's wardrobe so that she cannot find any of the clothes she is looking for, and will therefore get mad, ahahahaha!" The glove raved madly.

"…excuse me," Master Hand muttered, and turned to his fellow glove, giving it a sharp slap across where its face might be.

"_You told me you'd behave! Look at me…at me! That's better. Now, either you act sane, or it's back to the Time-Out Closet for you, hear me?" _The whole room heard Master Hand whisper to Crazy Hand.

Luigi and Mario gave each other a look.

"Sorry about that!" Master Hand laughed, turning back to the audience. "I'm sure everything will go swimmingly. I think my brother and I will be going back to our residence now, so I'm afraid there will be no more questions. Oh, one last thing: if you are positive that you do _not _want to enter the tournament, please leave the castle immediately. All clear? Good. Bye-bye."

And with that, the two gloves left the stage by the rear-entrance, Crazy Hand still raving slightly.

The room was silent, and even the three new challengers standing on the stage looked confused; it was clear that Master Hand still had not explained things properly to anyone.

"…So what now?" Peach spoke up.

Princess Zelda stood up awkwardly.

"Um, I think maybe that it would be best for those who do not want to enter the tournament to leave the castle now. I'm sure that we will keep in touch with whoever wants to leave, so I don't want anyone to feel left out," she said apologetically.

No-one moved, and then a few fighters stood up slowly from their chairs. Pichu was the first to stand. The rat looked embarrassed, and waved good-bye to Pikachu before scampering out the door.

The Ice-Climber's stood up next, said their good-byes, and left the room as well, followed by Mister Game and Watch, who mumbled something about being too old to fight anymore.

To everyone's surprise, Yoshi also stood up.  
"Yoshi!" Mario exclaimed.

Yoshi ignored him, refusing to look into his eyes; it was clear to everyone that Yoshi felt ashamed for not fighting. He ran out the door quickly, leaving Mario blinking in shock for his beloved pet.

Fox felt someone stir beside him, and looked up in alarm to see that Falco had stood up.

"Falco! What are you doing? I need you for this one!" He hissed.

Falco grinned down at his friend. "I have some other business to take care of. Don't worry though-I'll be back soon, maybe for the next tournament. Give them hell for me, Fox."

Fox nodded mutely, finding that there wasn't anything more to be said. Falco strode out of the room with confidence.

The next to stand was Luigi, grinning sheepishly at everyone.

"I…do not think I'm up for this. I have, um…flowers to grow, yeah. I've decided that I'm going to be a gardener. Good-bye!" He cried dramatically, turning to dash out of the room.

"Oh no you don't!" Mario roared, grabbing his brother and forcing him back down to his seat.

"He's staying! He's fine…he wants to stay!" Mario yelled at everyone, trying to drown out Luigi's cries of "Get off! Help! Let me go!" with his own voice.

"Luigi's staying, then." Zelda agreed, grinning. Most of the room felt that Luigi couldn't leave the tournament, as everyone enjoyed laughing at him and taunting him too much.

"Anyone else?" Zelda asked.

Doctor Mario stood up, mumbled that he had other appointments to attend to, and sprinted out of the door, barely avoiding Mario, who tried to tackle him on his way out.  
"Traitor!" Mario screamed after the doctor, from where he had fallen on the floor.

Ness stepped around Mario and left as well, causing Young Link to groan out loud-the two had become close friends, and now the young boy would have to start hanging around other people to occupy his time.

"Sorry guys, but I've seriously been out of the race circuit for too long. Catch you later!" That was Captain Falcon, of course, as he disappeared out the door.

Jigglypuff had been sitting quietly for the whole time, and now readied herself to stand, and leave the tournament. She knew she wasn't anywhere near as skilled as any of the other fighters, and had no hope of winning the tournament anyway, so it was for the best that she left.

Before she could rise, however, Kirby got to his feet, causing her to pause in shock. The red ball-like figure turned to look her in the eyes.

"I can't fight this time, Jigglypuff. I need you to be strong and show these jokers what a puff-ball can do." He told her.

In the back of the room, Bowser laughed out loud, turning to Ganondorf and saying "Puff-ball! Ha!"

Jigglypuff, however, could only nod at Kirby, stunned. Kirby nodded back at her and left the room, and Jigglypuff remained in her seat, her heart beating fast.

_He believes in me…maybe I can do this, after all. I owe it to him to try, anyway. _She thought, and puffed up slightly, her face set and determined.

It seemed that the whole room took an intake of breath at once as Mew-Two glided out of his seat.  
"Mew-Two…why?" Jigglypuff asked.

He gave a small smile. "For reasons of my own that I may reveal later. Good-bye. I shall be the last one leaving tonight."

He exited the room, shutting the door behind him softly.

Zelda looked around the room. "So, anyone else?" She asked.

But it seemed that Mew-Two had been right, for no-one else got up.

Link gazed about the room in shock. A total of ten people had chosen to take themselves out of the tournament, which meant that more than a third of the total fighters were now gone.

Princess Zelda put on a brave smile, but the feeling in the room was almost palpable: almost everyone felt affected by the departure of those who had left, for they had all fought together for so long.

"Well! I suppose that's that. Now, I think to lighten the mood, I'll get some of my helpers to clear up these chairs, put on some music, and serve drinks and snacks. That way, we can all get to know our new competitors." Zelda said, and a few minutes after she had spoken, helper toads appeared, as if by magic, and cleared away all the chairs so that the room was now a spacious area where everyone could stand and talk comfortably.

Music was put on, and soon enough waiter toads were walking around politely, holding silver trays of snacks and drinks.

* * *

The three new fighters had joined the group on the floor area. 

As soon as he was able to, Link walked up to Malon, who smiled at him politely, seeming pleased to see him.

"Hi Link! Isn't this awesome? Have you tried some of this food? I'm just used to plain old farm cooking, so it's a pretty new experience for me!" She laughed.

Link nodded, but he wasn't really listening to what she had to say.

"Ah, Malon? Could I have a word?" He asked, leading her to one side.

"What is it?" She asked, her face worried.

"I just…I wanted to talk to you about your decision to join this tournament. I know it seems fun and all, but…but people actually get _hurt_, you understand? People like Bowser or Ganondorf won't go easy on you in battle, and I'm just feeling worried about you." Link told her, trying to be as polite as he could.

Malon frowned. "So that's it. You don't think I can look after myself. Look, I decided to join this tournament by myself, and I don't need any protection, believe it or not."

"Do you even have a weapon? I don't mean to be rude, but I don't think it's a good idea." Link said.

The farm girl glared at him. "That's not for you to decide! Gee…I thought you would perhaps be glad to see me, but instead you're acting like my father! You'll see what I can do, when the fighting starts. Now…if you'll excuse me," she said icily, and moved back into the middle of the room to talk to Peach.

Link sighed, feeling slightly confused. All he had wanted to do was warn Malon of the dangers of the tournament, as he was worried about her; she didn't have to snap at him like that.

_But didn't you just assume that she couldn't fight at all? What if she can? _Another part of him reasoned.

He shook his head, feeling lost. He welcomed the inclusion of new fighters, but with Malon now here, he suspected that he will be constantly worrying about her, instead of focusing on the tournament.

* * *

Mario danced to the music, his eyes darting around constantly, following Wario's movements. His nemesis hadn't spoken to him yet, but the plumber figured that the evil so-and-so would soon walk over and start taunting him. 

"Okay…what's he doing now?" He whispered to Luigi out of the corner of his mouth, who was dancing next to him.

"He's...still stuffing his mouth with food. Wait, now he's talking to Bowser, who came over to him." Luigi reported, while doing very bad disco dance-moves.

"Bowser!" Mario hissed, his eyes widening. "What are they saying? This can't be good!"

Luigi narrowed his eyes in concentration. "I can't hear them over the music. Whatever they're saying, they both find it incredibly funny: they're both laughing a lot."

"Momma-Mia!" Mario cried. "They're already plotting against me! I can already feel the knife in my back! Et too, Brutus!" He sobbed dramatically.

Luigi paused. "Brutus? Like, the guy that betrayed and killed Caesar? Bowser can't be your Brutus! You actually have to _trust _the guy to be back-stabbed. Like, if _I _betrayed you, on the other hand, then you could say that, because-"

"Okay, okay! Shut up! It's just a saying!" Mario hissed.

Luigi mumbled to himself bitterly, and then his eyes widened.  
"Mario! He's coming over here now!" He warned, and Mario yelped, sweat starting to trickle down his face.

"Nyuck nyuck nyuck!" Wario laughed, tapping Mario on the shoulder.

The plumber turned around, and pretended to be surprised in seeing Wario standing there with his red nose.

"Wario! What a…_nice_surprise this is, what with you in the tournament," Mario said, lying through his teeth.

Wario shrugged, grinning. "Figured I'd give it a go! I mean, if _you _can do it, I'm sure anyone can!" He mocked.

"Oh…ha-ha, good one," Mario said lamely.

Wario leaned in closer, conspiratorially. Mario had to lean in to hear what he was whispering.

"I was so happy when I learned that there are no rules against _low blows_," Wario whispered, and laughed out loud with his weird, nasally chuckle.

Mario's face froze with horror, and he stared at his enemy speechlessly.

"There you are!" Link cried, stepping in front of Wario, much to Mario's relief.

"Eh? What do you want?" Wario snarled.

"Was that you in the garden before, spying on the Princess and me?" The elf demanded.

Wario shrugged carelessly. "What if it was?"

Link glared. "Listen you…I've heard about your love for money. In fact, from what I hear it's the _only _thing you love. So I'm not too happy with you staying over-night in the royal palace. I'm keeping an eye on you-steal anything, and I'll be the first to know about it," he said warningly.

Wario stared up at the elf for a while, and then barked a laugh. "Me? Steal? Oh, that's a good one! I would _never _do such a thing! I can see I'm going to like it here-you guys are such kidders!" He cried, and moved away, still laughing.

Link glared after him.

"Don't worry, Mario. I'll make sure that both you _and _the princess remain safe from that thief." He whispered to the plumber.

"L-Low…Blow!" Mario stammered, still in shock.

* * *

Standing near-by, the two princesses approached the new-comer Joanna Dark, both smiling nicely. 

"Hello! I can't tell you how nice it is to have more females around this place!" Peach told the woman, laughing.

Joanna Dark turned her blue eyes on the princess coldly.

Joanna stood at 5'9" feet, and had red, shoulder-length hair with a blonde streak near the front. Her complexion was pale, and she had the body of an athlete, with the only major mark on her being a star tattoo on the left side of her neck.

The woman smiled faintly, but her eyes remained cold and wary.

"Why did you decide to join the tournament?" Zelda asked her curiously.

Joanna shrugged. "For some fun, I suppose. I'm a player of DeathMatch, so I figured that joining this tournament wouldn't be much different then that."

"DeathMatch?" Peach asked, a hint of worry in her voice.  
"It's this virtual reality game a lot of people play," Zelda answered for Joanna. "They fight with guns, and it can get pretty brutal. Some people even die."

Peach's eyes widened. "What? _Die? _It sounds pretty dreadful."  
"It's a bit of excitement." Joanna replied, her manner still formal.

Peach frowned, her expression not approving.

"Well…anyway. Oh, I have to ask. You look like a spy, so would that mechanical spider I saw earlier belong to you? Peach asked.

"Yes. I use it to gain intelligence." Joanna stated simply.

Peach noticed that the woman did not actually apologize for spying on them, and realized with a shock that she really disliked Joanna. It was odd for her to be so harsh on someone she had just met, as well.

"Well, good luck to you in the tournament," Zelda said, smiling, and led Peach away from the red-haired woman, perhaps because she could feel the tension that had started to develop between the two women.

"Sorry about that," Peach mumbled.

"It's fine." Zelda reassured her. "Oh. Here comes Malon!"

Peach looked up to see the red-haired farm girl walking over to them, smiling. She had already met Malon, but figured that she mustn't have had the chance to say hello to Zelda yet.

_So many red-haired people now! _Peach thought to herself contently. _Malon, Joanna, and Roy. _

"Hi, Zelda, long time no see." Malon said good-naturedly.

The princess greeted the farm girl back, and the two started to chat.

Peach realized that something was wrong, however: Zelda and Malon were acting friendly enough, but at the same time they were both acting a bit _too _formal, as if they were sizing each other up.

_They both know Link, don't they? _Peach thought, and had to stop herself from smiling. She wondered if Link knew how both of his friends felt about him.

* * *

In the corner of the room stood Samus the bounty-hunter quietly. She had her visor on, and was using her scan device on the new fighters; she wanted to have a better idea what she was up against. 

Malon, the farm girl, had no weapons on her, and Samus couldn't think of what abilities or techniques she might use to fight. She was a mystery.

She scanned Wario next, and grimaced at the amount of illegal and dangerous apparatus he had stashed in his pockets. _Better keep my distance when I'm fighting him,_ she thought.

Finally, she turned her scan on Joanna Dark, and had to stop herself from gasping aloud. The girl was packing some serious heat under her black and purple suit-pistols, a knife, and some small gadgets that even the bounty-hunter couldn't recognize.

She smiled to herself, under her visor. _Looks like I have some serious competition. _

Suddenly she noticed that Marth and Roy were standing next to the huge punch bowl that had been laid out, and the two of them kept sneaking glances at Joanna Dark.

Samus frowned. _What are those two up to?

* * *

_

Marth sighed in exasperation, while sipping at his punch.

"Don't go over there. You've had too much punch-even if it isn't alcoholic, you're probably still on a sugar-rush-and besides, it would be okay if you just wanted to welcome her to the clan, but you say you want to _hit on her? _Something tells me that's a bad idea." Marth warned Roy.

Roy glugged down more punch. "Why shouldn't I? I'm in a good mood! The tournament's still on, and we have new fighters! What's the worst that could happen? Besides, we probably have a lot in common!" He defended.

"Okay, wise-guy. From not even having said a single word to this Joanna Dark, tell me what you think you have in common." Marth demanded, crossing his arms.

"Well…we both have red hair." Roy said.

"…your powers of observation astound me. You both have red hair. Well, I suppose that settles everything!" Marth snapped sarcastically. "Hey, Donkey Kong and Mario have the same color hair; why don't they get together?"

Roy grimaced. "Okay, okay, point taken. But I have more! I over-heard a conversation she was having earlier, and she plays DeathMatch, and seems to live for excitement. Well? I'm a fun guy! That's a good match right there!"

Marth slapped his forehead, and then gave up trying.  
"You know what? Fine. Go over there, do your thing, and then after she slaps you or whatever, we can continue this evening in peace. Get it out of your system." Marth said, sighing.

Roy put down his punch, grinning, and walked over to Joanna casually.

Marth watched calmly, sipping his punch. He couldn't hear what Roy was saying to the new girl, but from the way her eyes were continuing to narrow, he could tell it wasn't having the desired effect.

Roy tried one last line, and then Joanna's patience ran out.  
Marth winced, half closing his eyes as Roy got what was coming to him.

The red-haired fighter limped back to the punch table, holding his cheek with one hand, his eyes wide.

"See? I told you that would happen," Marth chastised him.

"No you didn't!" Roy cried, over the music. "You said she would _slap _me! You saw what happened: she friggen _pistol-whipped _me! Did you see?"

Marth nodded, trying not to laugh. "Yeah. She totally got out her hand-gun and then whipped you good with it."

Roy sobbed, caressing his cheek with his hand. "I was trying to be nice, too! Damn it."

Marth laughed. "Oh hey, don't worry: there's still that other new fighter, Malon! And wow, you two both have _red _hair as well! That means it _has _to work out!" He mocked his friend.

Roy just glared at him, now off his sugar-rush. "_Shut up!"

* * *

_

Fox sat at a chair against the wall, feeling slightly weird. Everyone seemed to be having a good time-well, everyone except maybe Mario, who was dancing like a depressed person, and Roy, who had just gotten pistol-whipped. He had been enjoying himself as well, but then he was struck with a realization that, come tomorrow, preparations for the tournament might begin to get under-way.

Master Hand had left much unexplained. Were there going to be elimination rounds? Where would they stay for the tournament? Would the rules for the matches change?

He glanced around the room once more. Surely there would be other new fighters entering as well? He suspected that Master Hand had something up his sleeve.

His heart sank as he realized too that he would be fighting virtually alone, with Falco gone.

Trying not to think about it, he stood up and made himself join in to conversations, but he couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was about to happen.

* * *

**I'm sure you're just being paranoid, Fox! Nothing bad will happen...(looks shifty). :p  
I realize that nothing much happened in this chapter, but I had a lot to deal with, so that took up a lot of space. Ten fighters left-if anyone has a problem with any of the people who left, I don't care!  
Nah, kidding. If I get lots of reviews begging me to make a specific person come back, I will probably do so. But remember-just because those characters aren't competing in the tournament, it doesn't mean that they will be out of the story completely. **

Anyway, I'mpleased with how this came out. Joanna, Malon, and Wario are excellent characters to throw in there and stir things up, for good or bad. Oh, and Joanna won't be so cold and untalkative forever, so don't worry about that. There's a reason her character's like that for now, which I will explain later in the story. And likewise, Roy won't always be so cocky like he was after drinking too much punch-he has a serious side, too.

**For those who don't know, the saying "Et too, Brutus?" (probably mis-spelled :S), is what Caesar (spelling?) said after he was stabbed in the back by his best friend Brutus, before he died. Supposedly, anyway. It means "You too, Brutus?" in English, as Caesar was reffering to the fact that everyone betrayed him, even his best friend. It's a fairly common saying, but I feel the need to explain, so...bleh. **

The "party" scene in this sort of reminds me of party scenes that BabyGurl and Rynada have written in their stories. I wanted to have the new characters interact with the old characters though, and doing it like that was the easiest way. So, sorry girls, if it looks like I'm copying you! I'm not! Don't sue:p  
Oh, and how come _every _party needs to have a bowl of punch? I don't even drink punch. I threw that in there anyway, to be cool and popular (but it didn't work :p).

Four people reviewed the first chapter. That is plenty, so thanks very much to you all! There will be _plenty _more to come of this story, so keep reading!  
In the words of Crazy Hand, "I ate some scissors."  
What? Riiiighhhttt...

P.S: It's late. Apologies for typos. I just wanted to get this up.


	3. The Warm Up

**Surprise! Third chapter, coming to you early. I had the idea for it and everything worked out, so I decided to go for it.  
Before you start reading this, though, I need to explain something. In this chapter, at the start,we learn that the fighters will be sorted into groups randomly (My god, spoilers:p).  
Now, when I say "randomly", I mean that it is random both in the story, and out. So, instead of saying "Right, I'll put Malon, Zelda, and Joanna in the same room, because that will cause the most friction", I decided to leave it to fate to decide who ends up with whom. I was pretty amused with some of the results!  
Okay, read on now.**  


* * *

Chapter 3: The Warm-Up 

The party seemed to be winding down, and a few of the Smashers began to yawn pointedly, glancing at the doorway which led out to the castle's main hall, and hopefully to their beds as well.

Zelda turned off the music and turned to address the room.  
"Well, I'm sure we're all tired after today, so perhaps we should turn in. I'm sorry to say that I haven't arranged sleeping quarters for everybody as of yet, but I will get on to that now…yes, what is it?" Zelda said, the last part of her speech being directed at a nervous-looking toad who was tugging at the hem of her dress, trying to get her attention.

"Your highness, I'm sorry to interrupt. That Master Hand character actually left a note with the palace staff, concerning sleeping arrangements, so I thought you would like to take a look at it." The toad mumbled, his eyes glued to his feet.

Zelda blinked. "Oh, is that so? Well, hand me the note and I'll read it out loud."

The toad handed up a sheet of paper and then scurried off quickly.

The princess cleared her throat, her eyes on the paper, and began to read aloud:

"You didn't think I would have you do all the work now did you, princess? Before I left, and while you were all partying, I actually arranged for some rooms to be prepared for all of our guests, including you. I asked one of your servants how many competitors remained, and was pleased to hear that the number was an even eighteen. This way, you can all split up into six groups of three, and will occupy six rooms in the castle tonight. I am sorry if I sound commanding, but this is for the tournament, you see. Tomorrow, when you all awake in your rooms, you will find a surprise waiting for you. I, personally, cannot wait to see the look on your faces! But anyway, following is a list I had made up, which sorts all the fighters into the six groups, at random. Ah, you didn't think I would let _you _guys sort yourselves into groups, did you? That would be too predictable, and not very fair! Happy hunting. Signed, Master Hand."  
Zelda finished reading the note, and, looking up at the stunned faces in the room, she added, "Looks like we've already been sorted into groups."

"That stinks!" Bowser cried. "I want my _own _room; I'm not going to share it with two of you losers!"

Zelda looked apologetic. "Well, he does say that it's for the tournament, so I think we'd better follow the instructions. I'd like to sleep in my own room too, but maybe this is for the best."

_For the best? _Mario thought to himself wildly, looking around the room. _This is awful! _He could just see it now: random or not, fate would probably have him share a room with both Wario _and _Bowser. They would pulverize him! And even if they didn't, it would still be pretty awkward, sharing a room with both his enemies.

Behind Mario, Roy snuck a glance at Joanna, who was staring impassively at Zelda. _Please, let me be in a room with Joanna! _He prayed. Even though she had pistol-whipped him earlier, he still found her to be somewhat mysterious and captivating, and he would love the chance to be able to get to know her.

He elbowed Marth in the ribs, and whispered "Maybe I'll end up in a room with both Malon _and _Joanna! That would be great!"  
Marth smirked. "Yeah, that way you could be beaten up by two women at once! I'd pay to see that."

Roy tried to ignore the dig. "Just you wait…I'm feeling lucky, so I'm sure I'll get a good combination."

Meanwhile, at Roy's feet, Jigglpuff was feeling even more anxious then normal. She didn't want to end up in a room with Bowser, Ganondorf, Wario, Joanna, or D.K, to name a few. She sighed, causing her body to puff up slightly and then flatten again. She had awful luck, so she was sure this wouldn't be good.

Link was also having a bad feeling. There were a couple of fighters in the room that he wouldn't even accept money in return for him spending the night with. He glanced at Malon, who was looking at Zelda with a determined look on her face. He knew he probably should apologize to her for being harsh on her earlier, so maybe it would be a good thing if they were sent to the same room.

Zelda was studying the note some more. "Okay, so it has the groups and directions to their rooms below that. I might as well read out the groups now…after I read out your group, you can leave for your room, okay? I'll read the group I'm in last."

She cleared her throat, and most of the room seemed to lean forward in dread and anticipation.

"Group one!" She announced. "Samus…Donkey Kong…and Marth."

Inside her helmet, Samus paled. She didn't mind Marth too much, who acted pretty sensible most of the time, but being stuck in a room with Donkey Kong-who was, when it came down to it, a smelly ape-was not appealing to her.

"Hey, you got picked right off the bat!" Roy told Marth. "Have fun snuggling up with Donkey Kong-I'm sure he sleeps like a baby, ahaha-ow!" Roy yelped, as Donkey Kong slapped him across his head as he went past.

Zelda told the three fighters the directions to their room, and the group left for their quarters.

Roy, now feeling more alone, felt anxious. For all his teasing and joking, it was only to cover up the fact that he was feeling nervous. He really hoped he got a good group.

Zelda consulted the note once more. "Group two is: Joanna Dark…"

Roy felt his heart quicken. This was it! This was the group he wanted to be in. He crossed his fingers.

"…Young Link…" Zelda read out.

_No! _Roy thought bitterly. One last chance now…

"…and Fox." Zelda finished.

Roy's jaw dropped. Young Link and Fox got to be in the same group as Joanna? He felt like someone was playing some kind of sick joke on him.

Joanna looked at Young Link, then at Fox, smiled slightly, and then left the room. Her two team-mates followed her, with Fox not looking too happy.

_Why would Fox be disappointed with that? _Roy thought. _Surely fighting along-side Joanna would be advantageous._

He paused, as a thought hit him. The note had only stated that they were to be sorted into six groups, and hadn't specified whether the groups would be working together, or would have to fight one another.

_Maybe I should be thankful I'm not in her group, _he reasoned.

"Okay, group three now." Zelda announced. "Pikachu, and Luigi."

Next to Mario, Luigi gave a yelp of joy. He tugged at his brother's arm excitedly.

"Hear that? Looks like I'll be in a group with easy fighters, bro! Haha! No picking on old Luigi tonight, no sir-ee!" He gloated.

"And Bowser." Zelda read out the last member of the group, and Luigi's eyes rolled up into the back of his head, and he fainted dead to the floor.

"Luigi! Snap out of it!" Mario cried, slapping his brother across the face, which he quite enjoyed.  
Luigi came around, blinking and in a daze.  
"Huh? Mario? Oh, I just had the weirdest dream: they put me in a group with _Bowser_, haha. Can you imagine that? Me, with Bowser! Especially since I sent him that rude letter last month!" Luigi babbled.

Mario tried his hardest not to laugh, especially since he was feeling very thankful that he wouldn't be in the same group as Bowser.  
"It's okay now, Luigi!" He lied, helping his brother up off the floor. "You're not with Bowser, you're with, um, _Yoshi _and Pikachu, yeah. So go along with them now…"

"I thought Yoshi left though?" Luigi said drunkenly, as Pikachu and Bowser came up behind him. Bowser laid his gigantic hands on Luigi and Pikachu's shoulder.  
"Come on, runts," he boomed. "You two will be my servants for the night."

He led Pikachu and Luigi out of the room. Luigi looked up at Bowser in confusion.  
"Yoshi? You look…different? In fact, you look exactly like…oh no. No! Noooooo!" They could still hear Luigi's cries as he was led down the hallway.

Mario chuckled to himself. _Score!_ He thought. He felt a pang of guilt for his brother, but figured that Bowser couldn't just trample Luigi for no reason…could he? _Best not to think about it, _he told himself.

Zelda looked around the room.  
"Well, that's half of us sorted now. Three groups left." She commented.

Mario examined the fighters that were left. His eyes met Wario's, who waggled his eyebrows cheekily at him.

_Not Wario! Please! _Mario silently begged. He tried to work out the odds that he would land in the same group as Wario but, not being good at math, he soon gave up.

"Group four…" Peach stated, and Mario crossed his fingers. "Mario, Link, and Ganondorf."

"It's a me, Mario!" Mario couldn't help but cry, springing into the air with his fist raised. He had done it! He was in a group without Wario!

He turned and, seeing Link, held up a hand above his head for a high-five. Link didn't move however, and instead looked towards the back of the room, where Ganondorf stood with an evil smirk on his face.

Mario lowered his hand. _That's right, Link being in the same group as Ganondorf is not going to be very pleasant. _He thought.

"It's you and me, buddy!" Mario said, trying to reassure Link that he had his back.

Link gave a tight smile, but he nodded and looked determined.

Mario and Link left the room, with Ganondorf stalking behind them, still wearing a smirk.

"Right," Zelda said, looking slightly weary of the idea of Link being in the same group as Ganondorf. "There are only six of us left, so obviously I'll only need to read out the names of one more group, and those who are left will make up the last group." She said.

Roy glanced at the remaining fighters. Apart from him, all that were left were Jigglypuff, Malon, Wario, Peach and Zelda. That meant that, including Jigglypuff, there were four girls left.

His spirits rose. No matter what, he would end up in a group with a girl; hopefully Malon, Zelda, or Peach.

"Okay, group five." Zelda said, her eyes back on the note. "First is Roy…"

_And then Zelda. _Roy thought hopefully. _Or Malon. Or Peach.  
_"And then Wario…"

_No! Not _him! He thought in dismay, glancing at Mario's evil clone, or cousin, or…or whatever he was.

"And finally, Peach." Zelda finished.

_I suppose that's one good thing._ Roy thought, smiling over at Peach. She smiled back, perhaps feeling thankful that she had someone decent with her to talk to.

Roy left the room with his group, walking as far away from Wario as he could.

"Phew," Zelda said. "That's finally done. We're all group six, of course."

Jigglypuff beamed happily. It seemed that she had landed with one of the best groups she could hope for. She and Zelda were fairly good friends, and she thought that the new girl, Malon, looked nice enough.

"An all-girl group!" Jigglypuff said happily.

Zelda laughed. "Yeah…whether that's a good thing or not we'll see come tomorrow, I guess."  
She looked at Malon, who was fidgeting, slightly nervous.  
"Looks like we'll have a good chance to catch-up, Malon." She said, smiling.

Malon smiled back, and Jigglypuff puffed up joyfully. This actually sounded like it was going to be a pretty good night, to her. Just hanging out with friends…

"Okay, let's go to our room then," Zelda said, and consulted the note one last time for their directions.

"Wait, what's this? Something's written on the back here." Zelda said, turning over the note. "Oh…it's a…message from Crazy Hand," she informed the other two girls.

"What's it say?" Malon asked.

Zelda looked embarrassed. "Nothing relevant, I'm afraid. It says 'I like lemons, because when I'm playing with my invisible friend, I can always count on the lemons to keep watch for me- Crazy Hand.' Ugh! Well, they don't call him 'Crazy Hand' for nothing, I guess." Zelda muttered, discarding the note in her pocket.

* * *

In another part of the castle, Joanna Dark, Young Link, and Fox-group two-climbed to the top of a staircase and faced a door. 

"That took ages!" Young Link complained tiredly. "Is this the room?"

"I think so." Fox responded.

Young Link glanced around at the darkened walls of the castle, and shivered. It was pretty late, so most of the staff had turned in for the night, leaving only a few lanterns here and there lit.  
"This castle is creepy at night!" He added, stepping closer to Fox, who smiled to himself.

"Don't be afraid of the dark." Joanna spoke up, for the first time since they left for their room. "There are far worse things out there."

Young Link shivered. "That…that didn't really make me feel any better, you know."

Joanna turned her blue eyes on the boy, and gave a rare smile.

She walked to the door and twisted the handle. The door opened, and the three of them stepped inside into a small, round and cozy-looking room.

Three beds were arranged around the room-the middle bed was situated opposite the door, and the other two beds were to the left and right of the middle bed. A small fireplace was set into the wall, just left of the door, and a fire was lit, giving the room a pleasant glow.

"Good thing there's only three of us, or we would have run out of beds," Young Link commented, walking over to the middle bed and flopping down on his back thankfully.

"The castle staff must have prepared all six rooms that had three beds while we were in the party room," Fox pointed out. "The staff sure works quickly though."

Young Link stretched on the bed, while Joanna walked over to the bed that was to the right of Young Link's.

Fox followed her movements with his eyes carefully-she looked like either a spy or a bounty hunter to him, and he didn't fully trust her. After all, his father had been betrayed by one of his supposed friends, so Fox always made sure to keep a constant vigilance up.

"I'm so glad the tournament hasn't been cancelled!" Young Link said, yawning happily. "And now it's even better then ever, with these new fighters. It's a good thing we have one of them in our group, too," He added, nodding at Joanna.

_I suppose that's one way to look at it, _Fox thought grimly, moving to his bed and stretching.

His eyes flicked back to Joanna, and suddenly his pulse quickened-she had removed a gun which had been strapped to her leg, and was starting to aim it at him!

On reflex, he upholstered his blaster, whipping it out in front of him and aiming it at the young woman. Joanna, to her credit, did not hesitate either-as soon as Fox pulled out his blaster, she stood up, pointing her own gun back at him.

"Drop it!" She snapped, holding her gun in both hands steadily.

"_You _drop it!" Fox yelled back, his ears pricking up vigilantly.

Young Link sat up on his bed, his mouth wide open, his head moving back and forth from Joanna to Fox.

"Guys! What are you doing? I thought we were on the same team!" He cried, in a state of confusion.

Fox's eyes narrowed. "Tell that to her: she was about to shoot us."

Joanna laughed icily. "Shoot you? I was only removing my weapons so I could go to sleep. You're the one who turned your gun on _me!_"

Young Link stood on his bed, trying to get their attention.

"So it was a big misunderstanding! Please guys, put down the guns!" He pleaded.

_He's right, _Fox thought. _I over-reacted. _

He lowered his blaster slowly, watching Joanna to make sure she did the same with her weapon. Carefully, she lowered hers as well, placing it on a low desk next to her bed, and Young Link let out a sigh of relief.

"You know, you two should learn to trust one another, if we're going to be on the same team," Young Link told them off, as if _he _was the only adult in the room.

Fox holstered his blaster, feeling slightly ashamed. He had not meant to over-react, but at the same time he could tell that Joanna was someone who had been trained well in combat, and he could not bear the thought of letting his guard down around her, even if they might be on the same team.

But he figured that it would be easier for everyone, especially Young Link, if he made an effort to trust her. He took a deep breath.

"Look," he began, while Joanna watched him with her usual calm expression. "It's nothing against you personally, but I have a…hard time trusting people, especially those I just met. Once I know someone I can let my guard down, but until then I'm afraid that I'm going to act slightly jumpy around you."

It took a lot of effort for him to be so honest with Joanna, and he couldn't tell if what he was saying was even having an effect: she was still looking at him coolly.

"Why do you think you're like that, Fox?" Young Link asked quietly, as if he was a psychiatrist.

Fox groaned inwardly. Anyone who had studied his past would be able to find out why, but he didn't like talking about the event to anyone but his closest friends.

He clenched his hands together, and then ploughed on:  
"My father was killed a while back. And not only that, but he was betrayed by someone he trusted. Ever since then I…I've just been on my guard, okay?" He muttered, almost hating the fact that he was forced to explain his father's death to Joanna.

Whatever reaction he was expecting from Joanna-sarcasm, grumbling acceptance, or just an icy look, he didn't get it. Instead, her cool exterior seemed to crack slightly in front of his eyes.

"Your father was betrayed?" She whispered, and to Fox's amazement her eyes watered up slightly. She looked away quickly, dabbing at her eyes.

"I'm sorry to hear that." She said. "And I mean that. You wouldn't know, but…I know how you feel. I'll cooperate with you and the kid here for tomorrow. Um…I might turn in now, then." She mumbled, and got into her bed, turning away from Young Link and Fox.

Fox's jaw dropped in amazement. _What was that all about? _She had seemed so…cold and remote, but then all of a sudden he had glimpsed a much nicer side to her. Maybe she wasn't such a ruthless person after all.

He looked at Young Link, who shrugged.  
"Sorry to hear about your dad, Fox. I didn't know." Young Link whispered.

"It's okay. Let's get some sleep, okay?" Fox said, and Young Link nodded.

Fox settled beneath the covers of his bed. The fire was still going, but the light it threw into the room was not bright enough to keep him from sleep, so he decided not to do anything about it.

He sighed to himself quietly. It had been a very strange day, and he always hated thinking about his father's death. He shut his eyes, and soon enough he was on the verge of drifting off to sleep.

_I wonder if you're still proud of me, dad. _Was his last thought before sleep took him.

* * *

Meanwhile, in another room that was identical to the one Fox and the others were staying in, Luigi sat shaking on his bed, staring up at the gigantic form of Bowser, who had been staring wordlessly at him ever since they entered the room. 

He gulped, grinning nervously. "Boy, I am sure beat!" He said loudly. "Pikachu, you ready for bed?" He asked the Pokemon, who was pawing at the sheets on his bed in fascination.

Pikachu looked up at Luigi, wrinkled his nose and shook his head.

_Traitor!_ Luigi thought bitterly.

"Well, okay, you guys can stay up if you want. I'm just going to turn in early. See you tomorrow!" He yelled, and scrambled under the sheets so that they covered his entire body.

From under the sheets, he heard Bowser move closer to his bed, and pull up a chair noisily.

Peeking out from under the sheets carefully, Luigi felt horrified to see that Bowser was sitting next to his bed, and was staring at him.

"Um…can I help you, Bowser?" He asked politely, his voice shaking.

"I think you can!" Bowser boomed. The lizard king then reached behind him, into his shell, and pulled out an envelope.

"I got this most…_interesting _letter the other week!" Bowser explained casually, pulling a letter out of the envelope. "I'm going to read it to you now."

Luigi's eyes fell on the envelope, and his heart plummeted. He recognized it immediately, for it was the same envelope he had used to send Bowser his rude letter!

Bowser cleared his throat dramatically. "Ahem. It reads: Dear Lizard King. Or, should I say, Dear Lizard Loser. I am writing you to let you know that, for the past week now, I have been urinating in your private water supply. Yes, you heard me right. Not only that, but I want you to know that I think you're a big old softie, who hides behind his army like a little kid hiding behind his mother's dress! I bet that, behind closed doors, you wear women's clothing and lipstick, along with a white, frilly tutu. So, from now on, I think I should refer to you as the 'Lizard _Queen'._"

Bowser stopped reading and laid his eyes on Luigi, waiting for the plumber to comment.

Luigi forced out a laugh, which sounded like more of a squeak.

"That's pretty bad, Bowser! Wow…who would write such a nasty letter? It could have been anyone, really." He said, coughing.

"You're right, it could have been anyone. Good thing for me that it says 'Signed, Luigi' at the end here!" Bowser roared.

Luigi "eeped" in fear, as Bowser plucked him up out of his bed and began to twirl him around his head with one arm, swinging the green-clothed plumber around the room.

From its bed, Pikachu looked on, its eyes wide with surprise.

"I regret nothiiinnnggg!" Luigi cried defiantly, as he went air-born.

* * *

In yet another room, Zelda lay in her bed, her eyes open and feeling wide-awake. She felt awful. How could she have started to argue with Malon like that? She felt like punching her pillow, but restrained herself. 

_I just need to go to sleep...I can apologize in the morning, _she thought to herself, closing her eyes.

She must have drifted off to sleep at some stage, for the next thing she knew she was being awakened by a shrill, buzzing sound that seemed to be coming from the room.  
She sat up in her bed in confusion and disarray, and gasped out loud as she noticed that a television monitor was slowly emerging from the floor somehow.

"What the-" Malon cried, from her bed. Her red hair was a mess from sleep, and she blinked owlishly at the television.

Before Zelda could speak, the picture came on in the television screen. It was Master Hand.

"Wakey wakey!" They heard Master Hand say in a sing-song voice. "What is going on, you might be wondering? Well, it is the middle of the night, and your group has been chosen to play a little game, as a warm-up for the tournament! I suggest you start to wake yourselves up, as I promise you that you'll need all your senses about you for this task." Master Hand said warningly, his voice low and dangerous.

* * *

**What the? A television just came out of the floor. Right. What is Master Hand up to? I'm afraid you'll have to wait until next chapter to find out.  
I had to put this up here quickly, before I went to bed, so, once more, I didn't have the chance to proof-read it. Sorry! I'm hoping there won't be any _huge _mistakes in this. Last chapter someone already pointed out to me that I described Kirby as being "red". Yeah, that was stupid. So, apologies, once again. I just really wanted this up!  
Also, at the end of the chapter, Zelda mentions fighting with Malon. You will get to see what happened next chapter-I just didn't want to fit any more into this chapter. **

What else...oh, the part where Fox and Joanna had a "stand-off" was pretty serious (for once, in this story, heh). For those of you who know Joanna's background, you will understand why she sympathizes with Fox. For those who don't, you will find out in up-coming chapters anyway. Oh, by the way, this Joanna is based on the one from Perfect Dark Zero, and not from the game on the 64. Timeline-wise, I've set it so it's after the events of the game.

I wrote the part with Luigi getting tortured by Bowser specifically for after the Joanna-Fox part, to make it less serious again. But, expect this story to jump from funny to serious and back to funny quite often.

After doing the random character selection, I was pretty amused how Malon still ended up on Zelda's team, hehe. And Mario escaped being teamed up with Wario, but got Ganondorf instead.

Youmay also notice that I have yet to write this story from the point of view of any of the new fighters. This is because I want their motives to be unknown, for now. But I will write from their POV in the future.

Well, thanks for all the reviews guys! I've gotten some great comments, and good suggestions. Some of you have already stated that you want Yoshi, and MewTwo back. If you guys keep putting up a fuss to see your favourite characters back in the story, it will almost definitely happen. And yes, there still will be a lot of new characters added to this.  
Oh, and thank Rynada for making me put this up extra early. She's leaving for Hawaii tomorrow for a week, so I figured I'd put in the extra effort, especially since she asked so nicely. :) Have fun in Hawaii!


	4. Ready Set

**Man this chapter was a long time coming. You might notice that I've put up chapter 4 _and _chapter 5, and there's a reason for that. I wrote chapter 4, but it turned out to be the longest chapter I've ever written (more then 7000 words). So, to make reading it easier, I decided to split it up into two chapters. Hope you enjoy! **  


* * *

Chapter 4: Ready…Set…

_Earlier in the night… _

Things had started out well enough, Zelda reflected. Her team had arrived at their room, chosen their beds, and were settling down to what seemed like a relaxing night.

"We're going to have to work hard tomorrow, to compete with the guys." Zelda said idly from her bed, staring up at the ceiling.

"Do you think we even stand a chance?" Jigglypuff asked timidly, to the right of Zelda and from under the covers of her own bed.

"Sure we do!" Malon answered Jigglypuff, her bed to the left of Zelda's. The farm girl was lying on her side, propped up on one elbow and facing Zelda and Jigglypuff. Her red hair hung loosely around her shoulders.

"I mean," Malon continued, "those guys are all pretty sure of themselves. Once most of them realize that we're all in the same team, they'll probably see us as the underdogs. But we can use that to our advantage-once we show them what we're capable of, they won't know what hit them!" She said dramatically, her eyes flashing.

"I'm not sure _I _even know what we're capable of…" Jigglypuff said in a small voice, to herself.

_She's sure determined, _Zelda thought to herself, eyeing Malon. She had not even been aware that Malon could fight at _all_, so she had some doubts about how well the farm girl would do in the competition.

"Do you know what Link said to me before?" Malon said suddenly, and Zelda turned her head to face her.

"What?"

"That I shouldn't enter the tournament. Like I couldn't handle it or something...it sort of bugged me. I don't mind him being worried about me, but he doesn't even know what I can do yet." Malon said, twisting her hair with a finger distractedly.

_Link is worried about Malon? _Zelda thought to herself, and she felt a pang of, what? Jealousy? Anger? Why was that?

She made herself shrug, and said casually, "Well…this competition _is _pretty dangerous. Link probably knew that, if you want to enter, you need to prepare yourself for it."

Malon stared at her for a second, and then said almost too calmly, "So…what, you think I haven't prepared myself for this? That I just decided to enter on a _whim _or something?" She had stopped playing with her hair.

Zelda could see that her words had stirred up Malon, and that she should apologize for the mistake, but it seemed that her mouth was not obeying the orders from her brain.

"I didn't say that _exactly, _but…you have to admit, it's a bit strange you just showing up all of a sudden. Did Master Hand offer you money up-front to enter the tournament or something?" Zelda asked.

Malon's eyes widened, and then hardened.

"How _dare _you suggest that the only reason I would be here is for money! No, Master Hand didn't give me any money, and I didn't ask for any! I'm here to prove that I've got what it takes to compete." Malon said quietly, but her voice shook with controlled anger.

There was a rustle of sheets as Jigglypuff sat up in her bed.

"Er, girls? Maybe we should all get some sleep now? We'll need all our strength for tomorrow." Jigglypuff suggested anxiously, clearly trying to defuse the situation.

But Zelda couldn't hold back the retort she wanted to say. "Hey, don't get angry with me! I'm just saying what most people are probably thinking. And so what if Link tried to stop you? He has a good point!" The princess snarled.

"Why are you attacking me like this? It sounds more like you feel threatened by me! Is it because Link talked to me? Are you _that _insecure?" Malon shouted at Zelda, and the princess' face reddened.

On her bed, Jigglypuff winced and closed her eyes. Why did human girls always have to fight over males?  
Zelda felt furious, but she tried to cover it by laughing at Malon.

"Why would I feel threatened by _you_? Link can talk to whoever he wants-we're just friends!" Zelda raged.

Malon took a deep breath, preparing to give Zelda more of her mind, but just at that moment Jigglypuff floated over in between both girls' beds, her body puffed up to double its usual size.

"ENOUGH!" The pokemon cried in her high-pitched voice. "Stop this! If you two start arguing now, we're not going to stand a chance in this competition! I know you're both angry, but…can't you both just sleep on it, at least?"

Malon blushed, and turned over in her bed without another word, so that her back was to the princess.

"Yeah, whatever," Zelda mumbled, still feeling angry-though quite _why _she was so angry she couldn't quite grasp at that moment. She wriggled under the sheets of her bed, feeling both self-righteous and ashamed.

Jigglypuff, her heart hammering, returned to her normal size and went back to her bed. She could not believe what she just had to do-jump in between two arguing competitors and play peacemaker…at heart, she was a shy and timid character, so she wished that, come tomorrow, the two girls would have calmed down at least slightly.

* * *

_Present-time:_

The three girls stared open-mouthed at the wide television which had just emerged from the floor.

"Wakey wakey!" They heard Master Hand say in a sing-song voice. "What is going on, you might be wondering? Well, it is the middle of the night, and your group has been chosen to play a little game, as a warm-up for the tournament! I suggest you start to wake yourselves up, as I promise you that you'll need all your senses about you for this task." Master Hand said warningly, his voice low and dangerous.  
Zelda was the first to recover from her shock. "A 'little game'? Master Hand, we're all too tired for this! I must have only been asleep for a few hours. Can't this wait for the morning?" She pleaded tiredly.

The girls looked again to the television for the gloves' reaction, but Master Hand was silent.

"Hello? Did you hear what I said?" Zelda asked, curiously.

"…I'm sure you all must have a lot of questions. Unfortunately for you, this is only a recording, so I can't answer those questions. Instead, you'll just have to listen to what I have to say. Firstly, you don't _have _to participate in this game. You may simply go back to sleep if you wish. However, if you decide to participate, your team has the chance to win a special prize that will give you a big advantage for the tournament. Plus, there will be an individual reward to whoever comes first in the game, as well." Master Hand explained.

* * *

In another room of the castle, Fox and Young Link were both staring in amazement at their own television which had come out from a hidden panel in the wall of their room. Joanna did not look quite as shocked as her teammates, but her eyes were alert and suspicious. On the screen of the television, Master Hand had just finished outlining his proposal. 

"Did he just say 'special prize'?" Link asked excitedly, bouncing up and standing on his bed.

"Easy now, it doesn't mean that we're going to agree to this." Fox warned the young hero. "I'm exhausted, and we don't even know what this game is, and who we're competing against. Joanna, what do you think?" He asked the young woman politely, turning to her.

Joanna thought for a second, and then her eyes flashed with confidence. "I say we go for it. We can't let an opportunity like this pass us by, if we want to be serious about winning the tournament. But I also say we wait and see what else he says," she said pointedly, as the Master Hand on the television began to speak again.

* * *

"I do not want to say anything right now about the challenge itself, or even reveal what teams you will go up against, for of course I do not even know who will decide to participate yet. And, the less prepared you are for this challenge, the better. I want you to be tired, confused, and forced to perform when you're not at your best. Anyway, if you agree to this challenge, head down to the rear courtyard of the castle." Master Hand finished, and the television immediately flickered off. 

Luigi gulped, and stole a glance at the massive form of Bowser, who was still staring at the blank television. Not a word had been spoken as his team listened to Master Hand's message, but Luigi reasoned that that fact was not too odd, as only two of the three members in the team could even talk properly.

"Well…um, team? I say we go back to sleep. Let the others work their butts off for nothing!" Luigi said meekly. He badly wanted to go back to sleep, as his body still ached from when Bowser threw him against the wall.

"Quiet, you skinny maggot!" Bowser snapped. "I'm the leader of this sorry excuse for a team, so what I say goes!"

"Pika…" Pikachu said sadly from its bed, shaking its head.

"And you can't even speak English, rat!" Bowser complained, slapping his forehead with a clawed hand. "Some team this is! Well, listen up! We're going to do this challenge, and we're-or should I say _I'm-_going to win! With you two dead-weights dragging me down, I'm going to need every advantage I can get!"

_Momma-Mia! _Luigi thought sadly. _Why did I have to end up on the same team as Bowser? And he's right about Pikachu: no-one can understand what it says, and I'm not even sure it can understand everything it hears either!_

"Fine…let's do it…" Luigi said sadly, almost crying, as he dragged his body out of his bed.

* * *

Malon, Zelda and Jigglypuff all sat in the carriage, which rocked slightly as it traveled along the stone road leading away from the castle. Overhead, the full moon shone down on the landscape around the carriage, making everything appear in silver strokes of light. 

"I still think this is a bad idea…" Jigglypuff mumbled, looking out the window of the carriage.

After her team had decided that they would attempt the challenge, they had walked down to the courtyard of the castle, where the carriage had been waiting for them. The driver had told them gruffly to get in, and now they were on their way to someplace.

"Think positive!" Zelda instructed, grinning in a somewhat strained manner. "I'm sure we'll do fine. Although, I'm still annoyed at that Master Hand, installing televisions in secret…in _my _castle, without me knowing! I wonder how long he's had this planned?"

Jigglypuff shrugged for a reply, and instead glanced at Malon, who was sitting stiffly up against her seat, her arms crossed and her brow furrowed. She was resolutely staring out the window of the carriage.

The pokemon sighed quietly. After the message from Master Hand had finished playing, she had hoped that the two girls might make up and put the argument of a couple of hours ago behind them.

But instead, the two had barely spoken two words to each other, and the temperature in the carriage felt very icy to Jigglypuff.

_There is no way we're winning anything, acting like this. _Jigglypuff thought sadly, but just then the carriage came to a stop suddenly.

"What the-?" Zelda exclaimed, leaning forward to look out a window. "We've stopped already? Nothing's out here!"

The carriage door swung open, opened by the driver, who indicated that they should get out of the carriage.

The girls all hopped out of the carriage quickly, to find themselves standing in the middle of a grassy meadow, barren apart from a couple of trees spread out here and there. Jigglypuff looked over her shoulder, and noted that she could still see princess Zelda's castle in the distance, outlined against the night sky.

The driver climbed back into the front of the carriage, cracked his whip, and the horses led the carriage back away to the castle.

Princess Zelda looked around the meadow, and then spotted none other then Master Hand, standing near-by with another team around him-Bowser's team, she realized, as she led her team over to the glove.

"Greetings! I'm so glad you decided to join us, princess." Master Hand cried, as Zelda came to a stop in front of him, her hands placed on her hips.

"Yes…well, don't think I'm too happy about this. I'm sure my guards are in a panic right now over my sudden departure from the castle." Zelda said coolly-a lack of sleep had turned her mood even sourer.

"I completely understand!" Master Hand said easily, though it sounded like he hadn't really listened to what Zelda had said. "That's why I'm sure you're eager to get this over with, so you can go back to your room and get some sleep!"

Zelda opened her mouth to argue, realised that that was exactly what she wanted, and shut her mouth decisively.

Standing skittishly next to Master Hand, Luigi looked with some amount of dread at Zelda's team. He knew that Zelda-especially when she transformed herself into Sheik-was a cunning and able fighter, and Jigglypuff, while not a power fighter, had a lot of smarts for a pokemon.

He peered up at Bowser, and felt like bawling. How could he even hope to co-operate with Bowser, when the Lizard King was more likely to squash him then help him?

Malon had walked over to the other team, perhaps just as an excuse to keep away from Zelda.  
"So, I take it that you guys saw the message too?" She asked politely.

Bowser grunted dismissively, and Pikachu nodded and scratched himself behind the ear with a foot. The pokemon was still wearing a night-hat, and looked tired.

"Good luck to your team," Luigi said, holding out a hand to shake Malon's.

But before he could shake her hand, Bowser slapped his hand away.  
"Fool! What are you doing? We don't encourage our enemy!" He shouted at the quivering plumber.

"Um….riiight." Malon said, backing away from the hulking form of Bowser. "Well, anyway, good luck to you guys, too."

"Is this everyone?" Zelda asked Master Hand. "Because if it is, can we get this over with?"

The glove hesitated. "Well, I was hoping for more, but I suppose if…oh wait! Here comes more competitors now."

Zelda turned, to see another carriage roll to a stop in the grass near where she was standing. The driver hopped to the ground, opened the door, and the princess' heart sank as she saw Fox emerge from the carriage, followed by Joanna Dark and Young Link.

Fox blinked and looked around at the seven individuals. "We're not late, are we?" He asked. "We would have come a lot sooner, only we got lost trying to find the rear courtyard."

"It's fine," Master Hand said, striding forward and turning to face the three teams.

"Everyone I requested for this game came, I see! Very good." He said.

"Yeah yeah…what are we meant to do?" Bowser spoke up impatiently.

"Straight into it, eh? Well, okay. The game is simple. This isn't meant to be strictly part of the competition, so I won't have you fight each other properly. Instead, I want you all to participate in a race. The first person to get back to the castle wins an individual prize. The first _team _back to the castle also gets a prize, but for a team to win, all three of its members must be the first to touch the front door of the castle." Master Hand explained.

"So, that's it?" Young Link piped up. "All we gotta do is get back to the castle first? Sounds easy."

Fox looked sceptical. "What are the rules?" He asked.

"The rules are, anything goes. Use any dirty tactic to win. Whatever you are carrying with you now, you may use." The glove said.

Bowser laughed evilly, but quickly turned the laugh into a cough when everyone turned to glare at him.

"You may have a minute to strategize among yourselves, and then I will start the race." Master Hand finished.

Bowser turned to glare at Luigi and Pikachu.  
"All right, runts! All you need to do is keep up with me, but make sure to stay out of my way as well!" He ordered.

"Yes, Bowser," Luigi sighed miserably.

"Pika!" Pikachu said, scowling up at Bowser.

"That better have been a 'yes, sir', rat!" Bowser warned.

Pikachu just rolled its eyes.

Young Link, Fox and Joanna Dark also went into a huddle.

"Watch out for Bowser," Fox warned. "He's faster then he looks, and plays dirty."

"So he's our biggest threat?" Joanna Dark asked.

"Probably. But watch out for Pikachu as well." Fox added.

"The rat." Joanna stated, raising an eyebrow sceptically.

"Yeah, it can call forth lightning from the sky, or just zap you up close," Young Link piped up.

Fox nodded. "As for Zelda's team, I see them as less of a threat, but mainly because this challenge will be mostly about speed. I can say without exaggerating that I'm just about the fastest person in this competition, so will you two be able to keep up okay?"

"I'll be fine. I don't need baby-sitting." Joanna muttered.

"I'll…do my best." Young Link gulped, looking suddenly worried.

Jigglypuff looked up at Zelda and Malon. "So, what's the plan?" She asked.

Zelda thought for a moment. "I think we're at a disadvantage here. Compared to the other teams, none of us is particularly fast. So most likely we'll spend the race behind everyone else. All we can hope to do is keep up, and then maybe over-take them at the last minute, by throwing what projectiles we can at them."

Jigglypuff paled, but it barely made a difference to her complexion.

"_Throw projectiles? _Isn't that a bit…cheap?" She managed.

Zelda shrugged. "Yeah, but the other teams are probably not going to hold back either."

Malon remained silent, and Zelda didn't bother asking her opinion.

"Okay, enough planning!" Master Hand yelled. "Competitors, line up behind this line and take your mark!"

The players did so, while Master Hand strolled over to the carriage, which still waited near-by. He turned to face everyone before he climbed in.  
"I'll be following the action from this carriage, and I also organized for the other carriages to follow your progress as well. Cameras have been placed between here and the castle, so hopefully we'll get some good footage." He said.

"Whatever! Say go, already!" Bowser hissed, from the middle of the line-up, on one knee in preparation to race.

Malon gulped, feeling butterflies in her stomach. She knew she wasn't a strong runner, and she didn't feel very confident that her team could win.

Young Link was feeling very nervous as well. Being the weakest and youngest in his team, he hoped he wasn't about to let his team down.

"Okay! Ready…set…GO!" Master Hand yelled.

* * *

**This is the shorter of the two chapters. There wasn't much action in this part, but that's because I was leading up to the race.  
It's been a while between chapters though, so I have to mention the recent Smash Bros. Brawl announcement, for the Wii. One of the new characters, like I predicted, will be Wario! Haha, I knew it! Some of you may want to know whether I'll include some of the other characters who were announced for the next game (such as Snake) in this story now. The answer is "probably".  
That's all I gotta say-I'll leave the rest for after the next chapter. Oh, and it would be really nice if you leave a review for both chapters...thanks! **


	5. Anything Goes

**And here's the race. Nothing more to say about it before it starts! **  


* * *

Chapter 5: Anything goes

Bowser, despite his large size, took off the second-fastest, running ahead behind Fox, who zoomed ahead speedily.

Zelda, who used her magic to transform into her alter-ego Sheik, followed Bowser, with Pikachu, zigzagging along the ground, running right next to her.

Next up was Joanna, followed by the slowest runners, Malon, Jigglypuff, Luigi and Young Link.

Bowser looked behind to see how his team was doing, and let out a disgusted cry as he spotted Luigi lagging behind the pack and already looking exhausted. He skidded to a stop, turned and ran back towards the plumber, scattering the rest of the racers as he barrelled past.

Luigi saw Bowser coming back for him, and held up his hands in defence.  
"Bowser, stop! I'm sorry I'm so slow! Don't squash me!" He pleaded, as the Lizard King seized him and picked him off the ground.

"Argh! What are you doing?" Luigi wailed, struggling to get free of his grip.

"Keep still! I'm going to give you a boost, since you obviously can't keep up!" Bowser snarled. He wound back his arm, and then with a gargantuan heave, hurled the plumber through the air.  
"Help meeeeee!" Luigi cried, shooting like a rocket straight over the heads of the other racers.

Fox cursed as Luigi over-took him, and watched as the plumber disappeared in the distance. A couple of minutes later, another rocket flew by him, this one a yellow blur as Pikachu was in turn picked up and thrown by Bowser.

Fox looked over his shoulder just in time to see a wall of orange fire streaking toward him. He yelped and rolled to the side at the last minute, the fire still managing to singe his fur, and looked up from the ground angrily as Bowser roared past, laughing to himself.

"Play fair for a change, you cheat!" He yelled after the Lizard King, who only laughed louder and with more enjoyment.

Fox got up, and turned to look at the racers behind him. Having lost the lead, he figured that he might as well wait for his team to catch up. Soon enough he was over-passed by Malon, and then Jigglypuff, who gave him a sympathetic look as she bobbed past.

_Where are they? _He thought, getting worried. _I thought Joanna was right behind me? _  
Then, Young Link and Joanna emerged over a small hill. Fox waited until they caught up to him, and then asked "What happened?"

Joanna shrugged. "The kid was having some trouble keeping up, so I thought I might as well run beside him. If we all can't get to the castle first, then what's the point of making this just a free-for-all competition?"

Fox beamed, feeling unexpectedly proud of Joanna's actions. "That was good of you." He told her.

Young Link bowed his head in shame, panting heavily. "I'm not as fast over long-distance as you guys! I'm sorry to let you down."

Fox ruffled Young Link's hair. "You haven't let anyone down, kid. Now come on-we still have a chance in this."

Behind Young Link, Joanna looked disbelieving.

Suddenly, a carriage drove up beside them, and Master Hand leaned out the window.  
"You guys better hurry if you want to win this. The first land-marks a bridge, you know." He shouted, before the carriage drove off again.

Fox groaned.

* * *

Bowser, feeling elated, spotted the bridge in front of him, framed by thick forest growth and hanging over a large trench, formed by two cliffs. He reached the bridge, and glanced down between the wooden planks, to see running water pass far down below. 

An idea immediately came to him. Chuckling to himself, he quickly bounded over the bridge, which swayed under his weight. He reached the other side, and, looking around, spotted Pikachu lying near-by on the ground, groaning to itself.  
"Hey, rat!" He shouted, running over to it. "Did the plumber cross the bridge yet?"  
"Pika…" Pikachu moaned, obviously stunned and in no condition to answer any questions.

"Bah!" Bowser said, and moved back to the bridge.

He waited for a few seconds, growing more and more anxious. Finally, Luigi arrived at the other side of the bridge, his body scuffed and dirty, with leaves in his hair.  
"Bowser!" He cried, making his way onto the bridge. "You idiot! I could have broken something!"  
"Just run, you fool!" Bowser roared.

Luigi growled, but kept running. The plumber had only reached the middle of the bridge, when Sheik leaped onto the bridge from the bank, and started running speedily forward, moving more then double Luigi's speed.

The plumber spotted Sheik behind him, yelped, and tried to run faster.  
But it was obvious to Bowser that Sheik would get across the bridge first. He grinned.

_Sacrifices must be made! _He thought wildly.

He took a deep breath, readying his fire ducts.

Luigi realized with horror what Bowser was about to do.  
"No! Wait until I'm across!" He wailed desperately.

Bowser let loose his fireball, which engulfed the ropes and planks of the bridge on his side. The ropes began to give way, and Sheik and Luigi hurriedly turned around and headed back to the bank on the other side.

Sheik leaped through the air, landing unsteadily on the bank and rolling forward. Luigi was not so lucky. As the bridge gave away and swung like a rope into the side of the cliff, the plumber was still on the bridge.

"BOWSER IHATE YOOouuuuu…" Luigi cried, as he plummeted toward the water, his arms and legs flailing.

Bowser laughed, enjoying the game immensely.

"Good luck getting across!" He called cheerfully to Sheik, who was now on her feet and glaring over at Bowser with indignation.

* * *

Malon and Jigglypuff ran breathlessly up to Sheik, who was standing at the edge of a cliff and peering over it. 

"What…just happened?" Jigglypuff gasped. "And who was that yelling?"

Sheik turned angrily to face the pokemon. "Bowser just toasted the bridge!" She said. "Not only that, but he sacrificed a member of his team!"

"Who? Luigi?" Jigglypuff guessed, raising a hand to her mouth in horror. "Is he okay?"  
"I'm sure he's fine." Sheik said, shrugging. "But now we have no way across, and going around will take too much time."

"Hey, you know what this means?" Malon spoke up. "Since Luigi probably won't be able to get back to the castle before any of us, Bowser's team can't win the competition!"

Jigglypuff nodded. "That's true! I'm sure Bowser would have realized that, though. He must be after the individual prize."

"So our odds of winning have increased, but what do we do about _this?_" Sheik asked, indicating the gap before them.

"I can get us across," Jigglypuff said, with sudden confidence.

She puffed up her body to its fullest, waddled toward the edge, and launched herself over the gap. She heard Malon gasp in shock behind her.

Puffing her body every few feet, she managed to keep air-born, and by the time she landed safely on the cliff on the other side, her body was back to her normal size.

She turned to face the two girls. "Sheik! Do you have some rope on you?" She called over.

For a reply, Sheik uncovered a coil of rope from herself, and tossed over one of the ends to Jigglypuff. The pokemon caught the rope and wound it around a tree, tying it tight.

Sheik tied her own end around a tree, and then turned to Malon with a smirk.  
"Well, farm-girl, across you go! This'll show us whether you're fit for this competition or not." She said in a condescending tone.

Malon glared back at Sheik, but made herself walk tentatively to the edge of the cliff. Looking down at the fast-running water down below, she gulped.

_Can't quit now…not with Zelda watching! _She thought, and with shaking hands grabbed the taut rope and began to go hand over-hand across it, hanging upside down over the dizzying drop.

Half-way across, one of her feet lost its grip on the rope, and her legs swung down so that she was hanging vertical under the rope, only hanging on with both her hands. She cried out in fright, kicking her feet and trying to swing her legs back up onto the rope. But she didn't seem to have the energy, and she could feel her grip on the rope loosening.  
"Hang on, Malon! Get back up!" She heard Jigglypuff cry, her voice thick with dread.

"Malon, you idiot! Swing harder!" Sheik yelled at her.

Despite the danger, Malon felt anger. _Stupid Zelda! Acting as if it's a really simple thing to do…_she cursed to herself.

She grunted and swung her legs forward and up one more time, and barely managed to snag the rope with her feet. She wrapped her legs around the rope once more, her heart thudding painfully. Closing her eyes shut tight, she quickly moved along the rope towards the bank where Jigglypuff stood, afraid of losing her grip again.

At last, she sensed she was above land, so she carefully lowered her feet, felt the earth, and let go of the rope, landing on the bank with a huge feeling or relief.

Jigglypuff patted her shoulder. "You did great, Malon! I wouldn't have been able to recover like you did…"

Malon nodded distractedly, too exhausted to speak.

She looked up in time to see Sheik quickly move across the rope in the space of seconds. After she touched down on the bank, she turned and, drawing a knife, cut the rope in a place that hung over the water, so that the rope dropped to the cliff's side much like the rope bridge had before it.

"Now the rope's too short for the other team to use to get across," she explained idly.

She glanced down at Malon, who was still on her hands and knees on the ground, and raised an eyebrow.  
"No time for rest now. Come on, we've pretty much got this thing in the bag." She said.

* * *

Up ahead, Bowser emerged scratched and beaten from the small forest he had decided to enter, which he now knew had been a big mistake. At a distance, the trees had looked passable enough, but as soon as the Lizard King had entered, he had stumbled into a mass of thorns and brambles, which scratched and tore at his body.  
More out of stubbornness then anything else, Bowser had continued through the brambles, refusing to backtrack the way he had come. His massive shell protected him from the majority of the vicious plant-life, but the front of his body fared less well. 

Now, finally back out in the open, Bowser looked up and spotted the castle, now much nearer then it had ever been. He gave a cry of triumph and ambled onward toward the finish line. Only a long stretch of open plains stood before him and victory.

He shook Pikachu, who he had picked up and carried in his arms with him ever since he had torched the bridge. He hadn't done it out of sympathy, though: instead he figured that he may need the rodent's lightning, in case one of the other teams tried to overtake him at the last moment.

"Look alive, rat! If you see anyone trying to sneak up behind me, zap 'em! Get up on my shell so you can watch my back." He commanded, and placed Pikachu on his spiky back.  
Pikachu sat down on a safe place on Bowser's shell between the spikes that dotted his back, and watched the landscape ahead of it, its arms folded grumpily across its chest. It still had its night-cap on, and so far it reflected that it definitely wasn't enjoying the race.

* * *

Fox, Joanna Dark and Young Link stood in front of the ruined bridge, the expression on their faces grim. 

"I thought someone would be cruel enough to destroy the bridge," Fox said, shaking his head and sighing.

Joanna peered over the edge. "There's a rope here, but it's been cut. Looks too short to get us across safely, even if we could somehow tie it to something on the other side." She announced.

Young Link sank to the grass miserably. "This isn't fair!" He wailed. "First, we're not fast enough, and now, the other teams cheat so we can't go on!"

"Well, it's not exactly _cheating_…" Joanna muttered, which didn't do anything to cheer Young Link up.

Fox nodded in agreement. "Master Hand did say anything goes, yeah."

Joanna's gaze clouded, and then her eyes sparkled unexpectedly, her lips widening in a grin.

"Anything goes, right? If they want to play it like that, why don't we simply fly across this gap? Or even to the very castle itself?" She said excitedly, and Young Link and Fox stared at her in confusion as she took out a small radio from her back pocket.

"What are you-?" Young Link started to say, but was hushed by the agent.

"This is Agent Dark…any drop-ships in my area, sound off?" She spoke into the radio.

There was silence for several seconds, and then the radio crackled to life.  
"…Dark? This is Firebird. I'm in the area, what can I do for you?" A man's voice came through.

Joanna looked more hopeful now. "Firebird, I need a pick-up right away at these coordinates"-and she rattled off a series of numbers. "Can you make it? Over."

Again a pause before the pilot responded. "I, ah, should be able to get there in a minute or two. But you know Carrington doesn't like you using his drop-ships like a taxi service. Is this urgent, and relating to a current mission? Over." The pilot asked.

Joanna hesitated before answering. "Um, you could say I'm on a mission right now, yeah." She lied. "Just get here right away, will you? Over."

"…copy that. I'll be there soon. Over." The pilot said.

Joanna put the radio away, and grinned cheekily at Fox and Young Link.

"Okay, now _this _feels pretty cheap," Fox pointed out.

Joanna shrugged. "Maybe, but we'll lose unless we try this."

Young Link jumped up from the ground with enthusiasm. "So, I get to ride on this drop-ship? Awesome!" He said happily.

Fox shook his head, but he couldn't help grinning. It _was _a pretty good idea, he conceded to himself. In fact, if he had been carrying anything to call his own small spaceship in, he would consider doing so.

* * *

Malon and Jigglypuff struggled to keep up with Sheik, who was moving speedily across the open plains. 

"Come on!" Sheik called over her shoulder. "We're getting close to the castle now, and I know a good short-cut we can use!"

"I'm going to sleep all day tomorrow after this!" Jigglypuff panted, her small feet aching.

Suddenly, Sheik stopped next to what looked like the opening of a small cave, leading into a hill.

"This will take us right up to the path leading to the front door of the castle," Sheik explained as Jigglypuff and Malon ran up to her, nodding at the cave.

"How long will it take?" Malon suddenly asked. "Because I think I've got a much faster way to get there…"

Sheik groaned aloud. "Trust me; I know these grounds very well. There isn't a quicker way."

"But-" Malon began, but Sheik cut her off.  
"Malon! We can't afford to stand around talking…let's go!" She snapped, and ran into the cave's entrance.

The farm girl opened her mouth to shout after Zelda, to convince her not to go that way, but then gave up. She looked down at Jigglypuff.  
"You follow her, then," she said, shrugging. "I'll go my way, and meet you guys at the castle. I'll probably get there before you, as well."

Jigglypuff looked apologetic. "I'm sorry she's acting like this…she's not normally so…up-tight! It must be the lack of sleep or something. I'll follow her and tell her what you're doing. Good luck!" And with that the pokemon disappeared into the cave.

Malon shook her head bitterly. _If Zelda wants to act like that, then fine. _She thought. _I'll show her who's right by beating her to the castle._

She took a deep breath, and then began to hum a tune loudly, swaying on the spot. She had just reached the end of the melody when she heard a loud neighing sound, and looked up to see Epona emerge over a crest and gallop down to her.

She smiled lovingly at the horse, stroking its long neck. Link had not been riding Epona for a while, so the Hyrulian had dropped the horse at Malon's farm a couple of weeks ago, which he reasoned would be a more enjoyable location for the horse.

Malon had ridden the horse up to the castle yesterday from her farm, and then had left the horse outside the castle so that it could graze freely.

She quickly mounted Epona, and directed the horse towards the castle, where it broke into a sprint.

The air blowing through her hair, she grinned to herself as Epona took her speedily towards her destination.

_Zelda should have listened to me…

* * *

_

The drop-ship touched down relatively noiselessly in a small clearing near the destroyed bridge. Jet-black and sharp-like with a pointy noise, the drop-ship had no propellers to speak of, being more like a jet then a helicopter. Unlike a jet, however, both its sides were wide open to allow passengers easy-access.

Young Link scrambled eagerly onto the drop-ship and made his way to the front seat of the aircraft, buckling himself in next to the pilot and grinning over at him.

The pilot, a young man wearing a helmet equipped with a head-set, took a long look at the unexpected passenger, then turned around in his seat to watch as Joanna hopped on board, followed by Fox, who made the pilot do a double-take.

"Stop gawking and take off!" Joanna snapped, and then added more nicely, "and thanks for coming to pick us up." She strapped herself into a seat next to Fox.

"Um…sure, right," the pilot said, coughing, and the drop-ship started to ascend.

"This is great!" Young Link enthused, leaning forward and looking at the assorted controls and lights in front of him. "Hey, what's this button do?"  
"Don't touch!" The pilot yelled, and Young Link looked downcast, but only for a few seconds.

"To the castle, and hurry!" Joanna instructed.

* * *

_Almost there! _Bowser gloated to himself, running up the stone path that led to the front door of the castle.  
Suddenly, he felt Pikachu jump up and down on his shell.  
"PIKA! Pika!" The pokemon cried. 

Bowser turned around quickly, and his eyes almost popped out of his head as he saw the air-craft streaking through the sky, straight towards him.

"WHAT THE!" He cried. "Oh no you don't, you're not getting past me that easily!" He sucked in a deep breath, and sent a fireball shooting straight at the drop-ship. The aircraft tried to dodge at the last minute, but was too slow, and the fireball struck it across its nose.

Bowser laughed loudly, but growled as the drop-ship continued on its path towards the castle. He grabbed Pikachu, and pointed it toward the ship.  
"Zap them outta the sky, rat!" He boomed.

Pikachu looked up at the drop-ship, and its eyes grew as large as saucers. Then, shrugging, it raised its arms and shouted "Pikachu!", sending a bolt of lightning striking down from the heavens straight into the middle of the drop-ship.

* * *

Inside the drop-ship, Fox felt the aircraft lurch alarmingly as something slammed into it from above.  
"What was that?" He yelled, leaning forward in his seat. 

Young Link turned in his seat to call back, "Pikachu sent a bolt of lightning down on us!"

The pilot cursed and struggled with the controls. "Lightning?" He shouted. "What next? I think I'm going to have to get this baby outta here-another hit like that and it'll fry the circuits completely!"

"No!" Young Link cried in dismay. "We're so close! Just take Bowser out with a missile or something!"

The pilot scoffed, circling the castle. "I ain't got no weaponry on this ship. It's for agent retrieval and drop-off only!"

"And, we wouldn't want to risk killing Bowser anyway," Fox pointed out.

"Shame…"Joanna muttered, looking out the wall-less side of the craft at the ground. "Or else I'd just shoot Bowser from here with my gun."

The drop-ship circled back around to the front of the castle, and Fox cried out in dismay. He pointed at the ground. "Look! Bowser's running for the door! He's going to win the individual prize."

"Think we can get down fast enough to win the team prize?" Young Link asked, and Fox looked doubtful.

Suddenly, everyone's attention in the drop ship turned to a streaking light that had suddenly appeared, heading for Bowser.

"That's a missile!" The pilot yelled.

They watched as Bowser, perhaps sensing imminent danger, turned his head and spotted the missile. He halted mere feet from the door and the finish, and desperately tried to run to the left, away from the missile. Pikachu jumped down from Bowser's arms and sprinted ahead of Bowser, heading towards the moat of the castle.

The missile hit, metres behind Bowser and slamming into the stone bridge of the castle. The missile may have missed Bowser, but the shock-wave sent him and Pikachu flying away through the air, zooming towards the moat. They both fell into the water, sending out two different-sized splashes.

"Whoa!" Joanna cried, her voice half excited, half alarmed. "Where did _that _come from?"

"Over there!" Young Link pointed, and everyone turned to see the hovering form of another, vastly different air-craft, hovering in the distance.

"That's an Arwing!" Fox exclaimed, hardly believing it.

The pilot's hand flew to his helmet, and his head lowered in concentration.

"Someone's trying to get through on a channel…I'll patch him in." He said, and flipped several switches.

Over the radio, from the front of the drop-ship, a voice sprang to life.  
"…Fox, you up there? It's Falco. I was in the area, so I couldn't help but keep an eye on how your team was doing! It looked like you needed a hand. I'm sorry if I broke any rules or anything, but I couldn't sit by and watch Bowser win. So once again you owe me, pal! See you later." Falco said.

Fox felt amazed. He had thought that Falco would have been long gone from the area.

The pilot shook his head, confused. "I have no idea what's going on here."

"Never mind that!" Joanna shouted excitedly. "Land! We can win this!"

* * *

The drop-ship touched down right next to the bridge-now with a large hole in it from the missile-which led to the front door of the castle. Immediately, Fox, Young Link and Joanna jumped out to the ground, and ran quickly across the bridge. 

Fox was almost to the door when he heard a noise that sounded like horseshoes against stone. He increased his speed, straining for the door.

A horse skidded to a stop next to him, and he watched in amazement as Malon vaulted forward over the horses' neck, leaping through the air, and touched the door by landed against it with a grunt of pain.

Fox, Young Link and Joanna all touched the door at the same time, right behind Malon.

Malon sank to the floor, heaving and gasping, but laughing at the same time.  
"I did it!" She wheezed, grinning with exhaustion.

"We did it!" Young Link cried, jumping up and down on the spot. "I mean, we get the team award, don't we?"

Joanna shrugged, looking worn out but satisfied. "Maybe, if we're not disqualified because of Falco."

Behind them, a carriage skidded to a stop just before the bridge, next to the drop-ship. Master Hand got out, and ran forward towards the four racers.

"That was great!" He cried. "Oh, the action! The foul play! I should have got some _great _footage from that!"

"Yeah, but who won?" Young Link asked impatiently.

"It looks to me that Malon won the race, and the individual prize, and Fox's team won the team prize." Master Hand said.

Young Link cheered happily, and Fox smiled with relief.

"So we're not disqualified?" He asked.

Master Hand shook his body, having no head to shake. "I said anything goes, didn't I? Your team wins."

Watching from the cockpit of the drop-ship, the pilot shook his head again. He still wasn't sure what was going on, but it almost looked like Joanna had been running in some weird race.

"It was urgent, huh?" He muttered to himself. "Something tells me Carrington's going to give me a talking to when I get back to base."

* * *

**Let me explain something about this chapter...usually, when I'm writing a chapter of a story, and it's going well, it will take meseveral hours over acouple of nights to finish it. This chapter took several hours over _five _nights.  
It's not because this is a very complicated story, but it was hard writing bits for all nine characters involved in the chapter. And the race was so hectic! Everything happening at once...for some reason, it just took me ages to get it done. **

Right. Well, the next chapter will include the lastlittle bit about the race, and then I will focus on the other three teams, which we haven't even heard from yet! That's the problem with having heaps of characters.

Oh, a question: is Pikachu meant to be male or female? You may have noticed that I tried to refer to it as an "it" in these chapters...unless I slippedup and accidentally called it a "he" a few times. Now, I see Pikachu as a he, for some reason. But I think that in theanime, that particular Pikachu is meant to be female, right? I don't know. So, vote! Pikachu:male or female? If you don't speak up, I'll have to make it male.

On another note, when I upload these stories, I always add my intro and this last bit afterward, while I edit it. But this means that, when I go to "save changes", the site often clumps a lot of the words together, without spaces. So, it's not my fault!  
Just had to explain that.

Why did I make Malon win the individual prize? It's not because she's my favourite character or anything. When I wrote it, I knew I wanted to make someone in Zelda's team win the individual prize, and I figured that realistically, Malon would have the best chance, by using Epona. That's all.

Also, you may notice that Zelda is very...um. To put it nicely, "mean" in these chapters. :p I might have over-did it, but that's what happens when she doesn't get sleep! Also, she's arguing with Malon, so that's making her extra grumpy. So don't hate her! She'll become nice again soon.

Sorry, too much to say! Please review this story! I've put a lot of effort into writing it, and a lot of hours.

P.S: Poor Luigi! He's fine though, don't worry. I just enjoy torturing him sometimes, he's such a funny character.


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